Al Dente, CBD

How sweet of the chef at Al Dente to cut the Television Critic's just-past-al dente spaghetti into manageable pieces. This is the sort of thing you would do for a six-year-old.

But although he looks quite young for his age (blast him) the TC is all grown up now and is, really, quite good at eating spaghetti.

At Al Dente they are very kind. They lavished all sorts of attention on us. Except an offer of water and a knowledge of the antipasto: "olives, salami, bread and ... stuff".

I don't actually eat "stuff" - but never mind, because we realised we had never met a waiter from Mexico before and we had a very good conversation with him about famous Mexican people (that painter) and tequila, which is very dear in Mexico, apparently.

Nothing is very dear at Al Dente: two entrees, two mains, one pud and two glasses of wine cost $68.50 (Although, looking at the bill now I see they forgot to put the pud on the bill. Send one in and we'll pay up.)

The idea of serving affordable food, especially affordable food down at the Viaduct, is an admirable idea. Even if Al Dente is really only off-Viaduct. It is tucked in behind the Tepid Baths and opposite a dreary set of apartment buildings. But never mind, because there is certainly a lot to look at inside.

It boasts the sort of decor you look at and think, "Goodness, somebody has thrown a bit of money around in here."

Al Dente has bubble-glass chandeliers and exposed ceilings with pipes for that industrial-meets-chic look. It has gauzy, golden curtains and square white china plates which resemble the square white porcelain toilets (this is a little disconcerting).

It has a fountain. Not many dining establishments have a fountain and I suspect that even fewer have a fountain which has been created out of a wall of pale tiles over which the water runs into a small pond filled with silk orchids. It resembled a urinal and had the effect of making you want to visit one.

There may have been some clever interior designer statement being made here about the dining experience and bogs, but I didn't want to think about that for too long.

I wanted to think about what to eat. Al Dente has one of those very large menus on which, contrarily perhaps, we found very little we wanted to order.

It is a menu which states that it offers Italian/European food. There is pizza, and pasta and risotto and chicken and steak. There are also "green-lip mussels with green Thai curry" and pizza with ham and pineapple and one with "tandoori sauce" and banana.

I suppose it is possible that at Al Dente they do such combinations in a kooky post-post-modern sort of way, but somehow I doubt it.

I also doubt that I would have ordered the garlic king prawns in garlic butter sauce ($12) if the menu had gone on to explain that they came on an unmade bed of supermarket mesclun drowned in gluggy dressing. And nowhere on the menu did it explain that the TC's shrimp cocktail ($10) would be delivered awash in that sugary out-of-the-jar dressing.

He had the spaghetti, which was, as already mentioned, nice and easy to eat and I had something called scaloppini di vitello ($17). This was two pieces of beaten beef with some sauce which was supposed to be marsala and appeared to be mustard, draped over a pile of spuds, broccoli and some carrot circles which had, intriguingly, brown edges.

After much investigation - the TC hissed "stop playing with your food," which I thought was a bit rich coming from a six-year-old - I decided that the chef had left the skin on.

How novel. As was the entire night.


Address: 104 Customs St West

Ph: 09 362 0808

Open: 7 days for lunch and dinner

Director: Sean Aram

Food: Italian/European

On the menu:

Fusilli pasta, $12; Pollo alla France, chef's secret chicken recipe in creamy rosemary sauce, $17; apple pie, $9

Vegetarian There's a thing called a "fry-up salad" which a person of vegetarian habits might enjoy

Wine Not a huge choice by glass; adequate by bottle

Bottom line Interesting fountain; cheap food.

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